Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

Nima doesn’t feel understood. By her mother, who grew up far away in a different land. By her suburban town, which makes her feel too much like an outsider to fit in and not enough like an outsider to feel like that she belongs somewhere else. At least she has her childhood friend Haitham, with whom she can let her guard down and be herself. Until she doesn’t. As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen, the name her parents didn’t give her at birth: Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might just be more real… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Islamomisia
  • Hate crime
  • Attempted rape mentioned
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Hospital
  • Death of a parent, off-page
  • Police violence & brutality
  • Drowning

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade

Maria’s one-night-stand–the thick-thighed, sexy Viking of a man she left without a word or a note–just reappeared. Apparently, Peter’s her surly Gods of the Gates co-star, and they’re about to spend the next six years filming on a desolate Irish island together. She still wants him…but he now wants nothing to do with her. Peter knows this role could finally transform him from a forgettable character actor into a leading man. He also knows a failed relationship with Maria could poison the set, and he won’t sabotage his career for a woman who’s already walked away from him once. Given time, maybe they can be cooper… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Fatmisia
  • Sexism
  • Parental abandonment
  • Cheating mentioned
  • Experiences in the foster care system recounted
  • Depression
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Death of a parent

The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan

The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan

Love demands sacrifice. Her blood. Her body. Even her life. Singapore, 1927. Verity Edevane needs blood. And not just anyone’s blood. She craves the sweet, salty rush from a young woman’s veins, the heady swirl of desire mixed with fealty—such a rarity in this foreign colony. It’s a lot to ask. But doesn’t she deserve the best? Gean Choo needs money. Mrs. Edevane makes her an offer Gean Choo can’t refuse. But who is her strange, alluring new mistress? What is she? And what will Gean Choo sacrifice to earn her love?… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Child sexual abuse recounted
  • Dubious consent scenarios, including employer-employee relationship
  • Child abandonment
  • Emotional & physical child abuse recounted
  • Abusive relationship
  • Cheating
  • Attempted suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm & self-inflicted injury
  • Recreational drug use
  • Death during childbirth mentioned
  • Physical injury, including a broken nose
  • Cannibalism
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Physical assault

Nick and Noel’s Christmas Playlist by Codi Hall

Nick and Noel’s Christmas Playlist by Codi Hall

Nick Winter is just out of the military, and his Christmas homecoming is not going as planned. What was supposed to be a memorable holiday with his long-time girlfriend goes sour when he learns she cheated on him while he was stationed overseas. At least Nick can rely on his usual shift at the family Christmas tree farm with his best friend, Noel Carter, and her endless supply of Christmas tunes to lift his spirits. A night of fun together is just what he needs to forget about his ex. But then they kiss. And it feels…so right. If Noel can… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Infidelity
  • Hospital
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Bullying

New Girl by Paige Harbison

New Girl by Paige Harbison

Welcome to Manderley Academy. I hadn’t wanted to go, but my parents were so excited… So here I am, the new girl at Manderley, a true fish out of water. But mine’s not the name on everyone’s lips. Oh, no. It’s Becca Normandy they can’t stop talking about. Perfect, beautiful Becca. She went missing at the end of last year, leaving a spot open at Manderley— the spot that I got. And everyone acts like it’s my fault that infallible, beloved Becca is gone and has been replaced by not perfect, completely fallible, unknown Me. Then, there’s the name on my lips… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism & ableist slurs
  • Slut-shaming
  • Rape
  • Cheating
  • Abusive relationship
  • Alcohol & drug abuse
  • Drowning

The Vacationers by Emma Straub

The Vacationers by Emma Straub

For the Posts, a two-week trip to the Balearic island of Mallorca with their extended family and friends is a celebration: Franny and Jim are observing their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, and their daughter, Sylvia, has graduated from high school. The sunlit island, its mountains and beaches, its tapas and tennis courts, also promise an escape from the tensions simmering at home in Manhattan. But all does not go according to plan: over the course of the vacation, secrets come to light, old and new humiliations are… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Body shaming
  • Slut-shaming
  • Parental infidelity

That Summer by Sarah Dessen

That Summer by Sarah Dessen

The more things change… As far as Haven is concerned, there’s just too much going on. Everything is changing, and she’s not sure where she fits in. Then her sister’s old boyfriend shows up, sparking memories of the summer when they were all happy and everything was perfect. But along the way, Haven realizes that sometimes change is a good thing.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Parental infidelity recounted

The Strange Thing We Become and Other Dark Tales by Eric LaRocca

The Strange Thing We Become and Other Dark Tales by Eric LaRocca

Eight stories of literary dark fiction from a master storyteller. Exploring the shadow side of love, these are tales of grief, obsession, control. Intricate examinations of trauma and tragedy in raw, poetic prose. In these narratives, a woman imagines horrific scenarios whilst caring for her infant niece; on-line posts chronicle a cancer diagnosis; a couple in the park with their small child encounter a stranger with horrific consequences; a toxic relationship reaches a terrifying resolution…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Abusive relationship
  • Elder abuse
  • Incest
  • Cheating
  • Miscarriage
  • Cancer & terminal illness
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a spouse
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Torture

The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montimore

The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montimore

Brooklyn, 1982. Oona Lockhart is about to celebrate her 19th birthday and ring in the New Year. But at the stroke of midnight, she is torn from her friends and boyfriend, finding herself in her fifty-one-year-old body, thirty-two years into the future. Greeted by a friendly stranger, Oona learns that on every birthday she will enter a different year of her adult life at random. Still a young woman on the inside, but ever-changing on the outside, who will she be next year? Wealthy philanthropist? Nineties Club Kid? World traveller? Wife to a man she’s never met? While Oona gets glimpses… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Transmisia
  • Fatmisia
  • Slut-shaming
  • Cheating
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Drug abuse
  • Terminal illness

The Boy Who Drew Monsters by Keith Donohue

The Boy Who Drew Monsters by Keith Donohue

Ever since he nearly drowned in the ocean three years earlier, ten-year-old Jack Peter Keenan has been deathly afraid to venture outdoors. Refusing to leave his home in a small coastal town in Maine, Jack Peter spends his time drawing monsters. When those drawings take on a life of their own, no one is safe from the terror they inspire. His mother, Holly, begins to hear strange sounds in the night coming from the ocean, and she seeks answers from the local Catholic priest and his Japanese housekeeper, who fill her head with stories of shipwrecks and ghosts. His father, Tim, wanders the beach, frantically searching for a strange… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Cheating
  • Pregnancy
  • Miscarriage
  • Death of a child
  • Animal death